Judge Orders ICE to Provide Medical Care in Largest Immigration Jail in California

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to provide constitutionally adequate health care to people detained in the largest immigration jail in California.

In her preliminary injunction, District Judge Maxine Chesney also called for an independent third-party monitor to ensure U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement meets constitutional requirements for care. And she ordered ICE to allow the monitor to access the facility for at least 120 days, inspect conditions, review medical records and interview staff and patients.

The ruling followed a lawsuit on behalf of seven detained individuals alleging brutal conditions at the California City Detention Facility, a remote, privately operated center deep in the Mojave Desert. Chesney’s order applies to all current and future California City detainees, though she has not so far granted class status to all detainees for the lawsuit as a whole.

“I would characterize the conditions in this facility as truly crisis-level. It is an emergency, what’s happening inside,” said Margot Mendelson, executive director of the Prison Law Office, which brought the lawsuit alongside the American Civil Liberties Union and the law firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters.

Chesney also ordered ICE to guarantee access to legal representation and to provide detained people with temperature-appropriate blankets and clothing, as well as daily recreational outdoor time.

The 2,560-bed facility is owned and operated by the private, for-profit prison company CoreCivic. Formerly operated as a state prison, the California City immigration jail opened in late August, under a two-year, $130 million contract with ICE. Since then, the detainee population has climbed to more than 1,000, and the company has said it expects to fill the place early this year.

“We work closely with our government partner to ensure we are providing all required services and meeting applicable standards,” Ryan Gustin, a spokesman for CoreCivic, told KQED.

Gustin referred all questions about the court order to ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security. ICE and DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

The immigration jail gained notoriety after recent visits from U.S. lawmakers, who said they witnessed punishing, inhumane conditions.

Plaintiffs, who described insect-infested, sewage-contaminated housing and threats of violence and solitary confinement by officers, also alleged a broken medical care system in their complaint.

Fernando Gomez Ruiz, a father of two who had lived in Los Angeles for 22 years before he was arrested, told attorneys he had been denied regular doses of insulin since arriving at California City, leading to elevated blood sugar levels and a mistreated ulcer on his foot.

“Mr. Gomez Ruiz knows that his diabetes can lead to serious infection and is worried that his foot will require amputation in the absence of the medical care he needs,” the suit reads. “Because of the facility’s restrictions on legal calls, he has been unable to discuss his medical needs in adequate detail with his attorney.”

ICE and DHS have disputed such allegations in the past. In court filings, they argued that the law does not require them to treat detainees better than prisoners and say the California City facility has an experienced warden who follows ICE’s detention standards.

Chesney issued an emergency order last month on behalf of two other detained men with life-threatening conditions, directing ICE to ensure timely access to outside doctors and treatment. But in court last Friday, the attorney for ICE acknowledged that California City staff failed to take one of those men to get his prostate cancer biopsy results on Feb. 2 because they hadn’t properly entered the appointment in their scheduling system.

The man, Fernando Viera Reyes, has been waiting months for care, has lost 25 pounds since he arrived in California City and is in excruciating pain, according to court records. The appointment was rescheduled for March 3.

“I am concerned about this particular detainee because I know people who died of prostate cancer, and it’s not pretty,” Chesney told the lawyers. “I am concerned he get the care he needs.”

Chesney indicated at the Friday hearing that she would grant the government’s request to transfer the case to the Eastern District of California, closer to the detention center, which is in southern Kern County, 75 miles east of Bakersfield. Attorneys for the detainees oppose the plan, saying ICE’s San Francisco field office is in charge of the facility. Chesney has not yet issued an order to move the case.